"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Former Football League clubs are finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet in the Conference and a campaign is gaining momentum to have three up from the Blue Square Bet Premier with two automatic promotion places. I don’t see it getting anywhere because League 2 clubs would not want to increase their chances of relegation to the non-league system.
Barcelona (both the city and the football club) has a very favourable image among those on the left of the political spectrum in Northern Europe. For them the Spanish civil war defines their attitude to Spain and they invariably will not follow Real Madrid. It was, of course, all a long time ago: the small but significant group of Spanish civil war refugees we had in the town in which I live has literally died out and all my current local Spanish friends (one who lives opposite me) are economic migrants.
A key meeting to discuss proposals to reconstruct the Scottish Premier League (SPL) that was due to be held today has been called off because of the bad weather. It is now hoped that it can be held on 4 January.
The latest in the three part Financial Times series on ‘football in crisis’ focuses on the supporter, but in particular on ‘the organised supporter’. What is an organised supporter? No definition is offered, but presumably it means someone whose involvement goes beyond attending games and then moaning on message boards and football phone ins about the manager or their favourite scapegoat player.
The second stage of the McLeish revew of Scottish football will be published tomorrow. Although it is separate from the proposals of the Scottish Premier League’s Working Group to be discussed next Monday, the former first minister’s report will inevitably overlap with their recommendations to some extent. The world of Scottish football is not that large, even if it spawns three distinct governing bodies, and he has spoken to th
Scottish football faces some big decisions about its future between now and Christmas. The Scottish Premier League are trying to get their plan for, as they see it, the rescue of the country’s football in place for the 2012-13 season. A summit of top clubs was held at Gleneagles on Sunday. Next Monday SPL’s Strategic Working Group will put forward its proposals.
The Football Conference has been trying to keep a tighter rein on the way which its member clubs run their finances through their Financial Reporting Initiative which should give early warning of any problems. Welling United lost five points in September for failing to accurately inform the league of their finances.
Supermarket chain Morrisons is considering sueing Fifa over England’s failed to bid to host the 2018 World Cup. They were official grocers for the England bid so they do have ‘locus standi’ and they have asked lawyers in Switzerland to advise them. They allege that Fifa did not act in good faith in its decision-making processes to handle the bid. If the action was brought and was successful, the compensation would take the form of a £1m payment to football charities.
This article offers an interesting and relatively original interpretation of the decisions taken on the location of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. It argues that they may reflect changing geopolitical realities in the world.
It’s not been a good year for the Football Association, but they have a chance to start to put things right with the appointment of a new chairman. Should it be someone from inside football or someone with a track record of success in another walk of life altogether? This interesting blog post reflects on these issues.